Should a mosque be built near ground zero?

Plans to build a mosque – an Islamic place of worship – near ground zero in Manhattan are slated to move ahead despite some strong opposition from some quarters. Do you tend to support or oppose this project, and why?

I don't know that I would have linked my opinion to a Broadway concert, but I have no objection to this mosque being built downtown. Thankfully, freedom of religion was written into our Constitution. I fear that if it were being written today, the fundamentalist religious right wing of this country wouldn't vote for tolerance.

And the most vocal opponents of the mosque have never been offended by sex shops within a few blocks of the World Trade Center site.

From Friedman's article:

"...I greatly respect the feelings of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 — which was perpetrated in the name of Islam — and who oppose this project. Personally, if I had $100 million to build a mosque that promotes interfaith tolerance, I would not build it in Manhattan. I’d build it in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. That is where 9/11 came from, and those are the countries that espouse the most puritanical version of Sunni Islam — a version that shows little tolerance not only for other religions but for other strands of Islam, particularly Shiite, Sufi and Ahmadiyya Islam. You can study Islam at virtually any American university, but you can’t even build a one-room church in Saudi Arabia..."

I don't think there is really any legal way we could stop this mosque from being built. I understand that some are upset about this, and I do think it is a bit insenstive perhaps that they do want to build a mosque right there, but it's not very "american" to try to stop this, in my opinion.

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio yesterday called on the Public Service Commission to zap the Ground Zero mosque because of the revelation that Con Ed owns half the site.

"As governor I will appoint commissioners . . . who, like me, oppose this group's plan to build a mosque at Ground Zero -- and I encourage New Yorkers to call the Public Service commissioners and tell them the same," he said.

Why don't the Dems have an acronyms...the DEMS?
Potential Acronyms for the Democrats
A long time ago the Republican Party gained the nickname “GOP,” which is usually understood as an acronym for “Grand Old Party,” although there have been exceptions to this. I think it’s time that the Democrats had their own handy acronym, and I’ve listed some potential ones below. I offer this list in a spirit of good-natured bipartisanship; I aspire to be an equal-opportunity offender.

The "RedEye" host wrote on his blog Monday that he's "planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men."

"As an American, I believe they have every right to build the mosque - after all, if they buy the land and they follow the law - who can stop them?" he wrote. "Which is, why, in the spirit of outreach, I've decided to do the same thing."

Gutfeld insists "this is not a joke," and is soliciting investors for the project, which he says will occupy an "available commercial space" next to the planned mosque.

New York Governor David Paterson told Rep. Peter King in a phone call today that he plans to meet with the backers of the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" this week to discuss moving their project elsewhere, according to King's office.

It is always very difficult to take the right decision. Me personally I wouldn't build a Mosque just in the area which recalls so many dead people. I am not against any religion, but building it in Ground Zero, I think, it would be like offering an affront to those families who lost their dear ones. I am sure there will be a more suitable place in N.Y. where to build a Mosque.
It is not a problem of being or not being tolerant: it is only a good sense behaviour.
Those who really want to use it to pray, they won't care where it will be placed.

A grassroots coalition of groups opposing the Cordoba House Islamic center and mosque’s placement at Ground Zero will protest its construction Sunday at 11:00 a.m. in front of the Park 51 site, on the northeast corner of West Broadway.

America is a nation of immigrants, and no place opens its doors more widely to the world than New York City. America is the land of opportunity, and no place offers its residents more opportunity to pursue their dreams than New York City. America is beacon of freedom, and no place defends those freedoms more fervently, or has been attacked for those freedoms more ferociously, than New York City.

What's the difference? We either have freedom of religion, or we give in to the haters of the world. We have more to fear from the religious fundamentalists in our own country than we do from foreign extremists.